Safwat
An Arabic feminine name meaning "clarity, radiance, or serenity".
Name Census estimates that about 10 living Americans carry the first name Safwat. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Safwat today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Safwat births was 2016 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Safwat. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Safwat. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
10
~ 1 in 34,275,434 Americans
Peak year
2016
5 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2017 SSA rank
#13,880
Tracked since 2016
Census
Safwat in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 363 people with the first name Safwat, which placed it at #25,907 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,907
National first-name rank
People counted
363
363 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Safwat
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Safwat is White at 82.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.4%) and Black (2.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Safwat described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Safwat at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.4% · 299
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.4% · 45
- Black or African American2.2% · 8
- Two or more races2.2% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 3
Popularity
Safwat: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Safwat by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Safwat during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Safwat
The name Safwat has its origins in Arabic, and it is derived from the word "safwah," which means "elite" or "chosen." The name first emerged during the early Islamic period in the Middle East, around the 7th century CE.
Safwat was a name commonly used in the Arab world, particularly in regions like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt. It was often given to children as a way of expressing the hope that they would grow up to be among the elite or the chosen ones, reflecting the Arabic meaning of the name.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Safwat can be found in historical texts from the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled over a vast empire stretching from North Africa to Central Asia between the 8th and 13th centuries. During this period, several notable figures bore the name Safwat, including Safwat al-Mulk, a prominent vizier who served under the caliph Al-Muqtadi in the 11th century.
Throughout the centuries, the name Safwat has been associated with various scholars, poets, and intellectuals in the Islamic world. One famous bearer of this name was Safwat al-Safa, an Egyptian poet and writer who lived in the 19th century and was renowned for his contributions to Arabic literature.
Another notable figure with the name Safwat was Safwat Pasha, an Ottoman statesman and diplomat who served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century. He played a significant role in the modernization efforts of the empire during the Tanzimat period.
In more recent times, Safwat Ghayur was a Pakistani diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan in the early 1990s. He was instrumental in shaping Pakistan's foreign policy during a crucial period in the country's history.
Safwat El-Sayed was an Egyptian actor and comedian who achieved widespread popularity in the Arab world during the mid-20th century. He is remembered for his comedic roles in numerous films and television shows, and his contributions to the Egyptian entertainment industry are widely celebrated.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have borne the name Safwat throughout history, reflecting the name's deep-rooted cultural significance and its association with excellence and distinction in various fields.
People
Safwat + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Safwat as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Safwat: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Safwat?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Safwat going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 34,275,434 US residents.
Is Safwat a common name?
We classify Safwat as "Very Rare". It ranks above 28.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Safwat most popular?
The single biggest year for Safwat was 2016, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Safwat is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Safwat in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 363 people with the name Safwat, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,907 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Safwat in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Safwat?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Safwat appears almost entirely male. Of the 354 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Safwat?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Safwat is White at 82.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.4%) and Black (2.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Safwat most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Safwat in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.4% (299 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Safwat in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Safwat a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Safwat in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Safwat still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Safwat in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Safwat can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Safwat?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.